


trying to hide a part of me

by when_the_planets_align



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Self-Esteem Issues, nora doesn’t like her scars, weiss helps her through it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28155159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/when_the_planets_align/pseuds/when_the_planets_align
Summary: When Nora is left with a permanent reminder of her own failures, she wants nothing more than for it to vanish forever.Unfortunately, an electrical scar isn’t something you can scrub away.Fortunately, Weiss understands the feeling.
Relationships: Weiss Schnee & Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	trying to hide a part of me

Swipe of blush here. Even it out there. Apply more here. Cover, cover, cover, co-

Why isn’t this working? Wasn’t makeup supposed to hide things you didn’t want others to see? So why was it that this ugly, wretched scar up the side of Nora’s face was  _ still there?  _ After all she’s applied?

It didn’t matter. It’d be gone soon. More blush. More powder. More makeup. 

She could feel magenta eyes scan her face and trail down her neck, observing, analyzing, taking it all in, every texture and pattern across her once-soft skin. Blue eyes bore into her shoulder blades, mapping out every path the dead electricity took across her back and arms. 

Staring. Always staring.  _ Cover it up.  _ She had. But no matter how many jackets she wore, how many gloves with  _ closed fingers  _ she wore, how many pairs of pants, knee-high socks, turtle necks,  _ everything,  _ she wore, her face was still there. Maps of pain and anguish on display forever. She couldn’t wear a mask, couldn’t make up some lousy excuse no one believed, but never mentioned anything, couldn’t  _ hide  _ from the embarrassment sprawling up her face. 

Swipe of blush here. Now make it look more natural on this side-

No, no,  _ no!  _ It wasn’t working. None of this was  _ working!  _ If anything, the faded scar had become ever  _ more  _ visible up the side of her face, trailing into her scalp and wrapping around her sunburnt ear. 

She clenched her fingers around the brush before yelling out in anger and half throwing, half dropping everything into the sink and twisting around to slide down the cabinets under the sink. The floor was cold and her bare feet were beginning to numb, but it didn’t bother her. She examined the few scars going down her feet and huffed, averting her gaze to her left, following the pattern of the tiles. 

She feels her anger begin to simmer just a bit, but her peace is short-lived as frantic knocking at the bathroom door pulls her out of her headspace. 

“Is everything alright in here?”

Weiss. Nora bites her lip, berating herself for being  _ too loud, once again.  _

“Uh, yeah, everything’s fine!” She yells at herself again, this time for the shakiness in her words. 

A silence falls behind the door for a confused moment, and just when Nora begins to toy with the idea of Weiss having left her alone, she hears her tired voice again. 

“Nora? What are you doing in there? It’s 4:45 in the morning,” she barely hears the stifled yawn through the door, but when she does, a pang of guilt shoots in her gut. 

“Um. N-nothing?” Nora was  _ really  _ close to actually kicking herself. There was no getting out of this one, was there?

The silence seemed to drag on for an eternity, and Nora wasn’t sure if that was because the silence really  _ was  _ long, or if it was because of the hour, or her anger, or all three. She began to really think Weiss had left before she hears the other through the door once more. 

“Can I come in there?”

Her voice held a gentleness she’d barely heard once, and that threw her off guard for only a second. Nora sighed, accepting her defeat, and meakly allowed her to come in with a ‘yeah.’

Without a minute inbetween, the doorknob turned and Weiss gently stepped in, eyes widening at the mess the sink no doubt was in. Nora turned her head back to the tiles she was previously inspecting, electing to ignore the Atlesian until otherwise spoken to. She might leave her alone, if she fell through with that plan. (Though, a part of Nora wanted Weiss to stay, even if no words were spoken.)

The door closed with a click, and gentle footsteps made their way in front of Nora, small body plopping down with them and forcing Nora to bring her knees to her chest due to the smallness of the area. A silence rang on, and Nora was having trouble interpreting whether it was awkward, comfortable, tense, angry, sad. She decdided that it was all of them. 

Nora was beginning to think they’d stay in this unknown silence until dawn when Weiss finally broke it with a sigh. 

“What exactly are you trying to accomplish by applying makeup so  _ obnoxiously  _ at 4:45 in the morning? What are you trying to hide?”

Taken aback by the pale girl’s words, Nora looked at her with wide eyes before chuckling dryly. 

“Gee, Ice Queen, weren’t you reading the room? I hate this thing, so, so much,” she traced her fingers along the scar on her face, clenching her fist, pressed to her face, in an attempt to hide it some more. “All they do is stare, stare, stare. I hate it. I hate it all so much. It’d be better for everyone if it just wasn’t there.”

Nora felt her eyes burning, but she refused to let any tears drop, to let any weakness show. Not here. Not at this hour. Not with Weiss. 

Weiss hummed, giving her a dissatisfied look she perfected so well. “And you think covering up something they already know to be there, something they’ve processed and accepted is there to stay, is gonna make them stare  _ less? _ ”

“At least they’ll be staring at something pretty.”

Silence.

It’s suffocating. Nora feels like screaming at Weiss to do something, anything, whether it’s to start yelling at her or to leave. But she stays still, her eyes locked on a chip in the tiles. 

It goes on forever until Weiss sighs once again, and gets up to leave. Nora tries not to let her disappointment show too much. She can let it all out once Weiss leaves and goes back to bed, where she can’t hear her. 

Except, Weiss doesn’t leave. Nora doesn’t look, but she hears the shuffling of objects at the sink’s counter, all movements gentle and soft. Her confusion is turned into bewilderment when Weiss plops back down in front of her again, this time with arms full of beauty products. 

Nora is given no time to speak or even think as her left cheek is assaulted with a wet makeup wipe, washing away the insane amount of blush she had caked on. Weiss cuts her off before she can protest, her voice snappy yet gentle. Nora wonders how she manages to do that. 

“You’re apply the makeup all wrong. Did you even think about foundation, or was your mind too disoriented because it’s, oh, let me check,” Weiss looks at her arm, which has no watch on it, “the ass crack of dawn? Seriously, of all people, I’d at least expect  _ you  _ to understand how to apply basic makeup.”

As she rants, she applies foundation to Nora’s face. The sponge is soft and the makeup cold, and Nora sits staring at Weiss’s concentrated face. She would’ve snorted at Weiss’s comments, would’ve made some snarky response back, but she was too astonished at the fact that a) Weiss was  _ helping  _ her apply makeup, as opposed to wiping it off and telling her to be confident in herself, as she thought she was going to do and b) the sheer amount of gentleness in Weiss’s voice. Here she was, berating her for her poor makeup skills, in the most loving yet strict tone she’s ever heard. It truly was a talent, she supposed. 

When Weiss was done with the foundation, she sighed and placed the makeup on the ground beside her. She pulled her knees to her chest and looked back at Nora. 

“I don’t… love this thing. But I don’t hate it either.” It took Nora a moment to realize Weiss was referring to her own scar. “It’s just… there. A part of me. But, I think being able to hide it, if even just for a moment, would’ve really made it easier to accept it when I was still trying to cope with it.”

The girls make eye contact, and they hold each other’s gaze. Nora didn’t have to ask for an explanation, didn’t have to ask why Weiss was helping her with something so trivial. She just told her. Like she knew the ginger was curious, was doubting, doubting, doubting. Like she could read and understand her. 

Nora couldn’t say anything as Weiss lifted her chin with one hand, inspecting her face. She was gonna think about what it meant, why she was doing it, but she figured it’d be best to have no thoughts, or at least not force any thoughts to form. It was too early, and she hadn’t gotten a lick of sleep due to her current crisis. 

“Hm. I think you’d look good with some minor red blush, eyeliner, and… oh! Definitely some eyeshadow. Maybe a red that fades into a pink? Yes, yes, that’d look good.”

Ah, so that’s what it was for. Weiss sat up to go fetch the materials needed, as the ones she had previously apparently weren’t the right ones. Nora heard her mumble something about fuller eyebrows, ‘lip gloss or lipstick?’, before she finally sat back down in front of Nora again. 

Without another word, Weiss took the makeup brush, padded it into the rose-red powder, and began painting her face. Nora closed her eyes and zoned out as the soft brush and the light powder danced across her face, Weiss’s skillful hand enhancing the experience. The powder was cool and Nora was almost certain she would’ve fallen asleep, if not for the numbingly cold ground she was on (Vacuo had coolers in the floors, and though they worked well to keep the indoors pleasant, it wasn’t very fun on your bare feet at five o’clock in the morning). 

Following the slight pressure of a brush and pen against her closed eyelids, Nora only opened her eyes again when she heard a  _ click  _ and no more pressure against her face for longer than ten seconds. 

Weiss was gathering up the little products she had, getting ready to stand once again. Nora still couldn’t believe she’d helped her out like this, especially so willingly and without question. 

“Uh, does it look good?” Her voice was rough with sleep, and she silently wished her body would allow her to get some rest after today, instead of being a bitch and keeping her up all night again. 

Weiss looked at her, a look of  _ ‘seriously?’  _ written across her raised eyebrow and pursed lips. She softened her gaze, though, and handed Nora a tube of red lipstick. 

“I’ll let you decide that one.”

They picked themselves up off the cold ground and Nora wasn’t expecting to see her own reflection look like  _ that.  _ Then again, she didn’t really know what she was expecting. She’d never worn heavy makeup before, and looking at her own face in the mirror, she barely recognized it was hers. 

But she  _ did  _ look good. Weiss had done a nice job despite the early hour, and as Nora put on the lipstick Weiss had given her, she searched her face for her scar and… found nothing. She almost dropped the tube of lipstick with excitement when she realized the orange scar up the left side of her face was  _ gone.  _

Putting the lipstick down, she kept her eyes glued to her face, examining her “new” features. Her freckles were also hidden, which bummed her a bit, as she actually quite enjoyed her freckles. She thought they were cute. 

_ Oh well. This is part of the price for your recklessness and your dumb, impulsivity.  _

Before she could continue her train of thought any further, a hand was placed gently on her shoulder and she looked to her left to see Weiss smiling gently at her, a silent understanding and reassurance. 

“Thank you,” Nora breathed.

For everything. 

A tic of silence was shared before Weiss groaned, and shut her eyes in part mock frustration. 

“Okay, get out. I have to go pee. And if you’re going to the kitchen, make me a coffee, black. I don’t want an  _ ounce  _ of sugar in my drink,” Weiss rubbed her eyes as Nora snorted at her annoyance, doing as she asked. 

In the kitchen, she turned the coffee pot on and waited. As she did, she took note of how weird the makeup felt. She’s never worn so much makeup before, usually only light eye makeup and lipstick at most. It wasn’t a terrible sensation, just new. She supposed she’d have to get used to it from now on. 

Weiss’s coffee was ready for her when she came out of the bathroom, and once Nora’s was ready too, she joined her at the kitchen table, observing the sunrise as it just barely began to touch the sky.

Weiss reached her hand across the table and held on loosely to Nora’s hand, which was already placed there on the table. Nora tightened her grip. She wasn’t sure what she did to receive Weiss’s kindness - no, scratch that, her  _ friendship  _ \- but she thanked whatever god was out there for it. 

As the sun rose higher and higher into the sky and splashed its colors clumsily across the horizon, Nora could almost forget about what had happened. She wanted to, in all honesty, but knew she wouldn’t be able to. Weiss was right - they’d notice the scar they’d become accustomed to suddenly not being there. 

It didn’t matter. Weiss was holding onto her hand, and even when they inevitably had to let go, she could still feel her holding onto her, a cool form of assurance. 


End file.
